


Fever

by Lady_of_the_Spirit



Series: Accidental Antichrist Acquisition [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Adam has a fever, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Cuddling & Snuggling, Frannie is mentioned and I think that's important, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, No Dialogue, Parent-Child Relationship, Sickfic, Tumblr Prompt, War is a good mom, not as sad as it sounds, the horsepeople are worried
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:06:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25868659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_of_the_Spirit/pseuds/Lady_of_the_Spirit
Summary: Antichrists, it turns out, can still get sick. Whether this is just a side-effect of Adam’s powers, the influence of Adam’s belief that he should get sick every once in a while like every other child, or just one of those things that regular human children go through, none of the Horsepeople know for certain. All they know is that they have a nine-year-old home for the week, sick with a fever.
Relationships: Death & Famine & Pollution & War & Adam Young (Good Omens), War & Adam Young (Good Omens)
Series: Accidental Antichrist Acquisition [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877113
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Fever

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt came from a list of sickfic prompts: https://whumpbox.tumblr.com/post/614396979270778880
> 
> Prompt: ʃ - fingers running through sweaty hair.
> 
> I just wanted to write for Good Omens and I wanted to continue the Accidental Antichrist Acquisition AU (AAAAU) so have some sick baby Adam, concerned Horsepeople, and good mom War. 
> 
> Adam is nine years old in this.

Antichrists, it turns out, can still get sick. Whether this is just a side-effect of Adam’s powers, the influence of Adam’s belief that he should get sick every once in a while like every other child, or just one of those things that regular human children go through, none of the Horsepeople know for certain. All they know is that they have a nine-year-old home for the week, sick with a fever. 

Or what appears to be a fever but may just be an Antichrist sickness. None of them know. It isn’t like there are parenting books for this sort of thing. And it’s bothering them a lot that none of them know what the problem is, if they should be worried or if it’s just a regular human thing, and if it’s just a regular human thing how worried they should be about that. 

Famine and War end up working from home for the week, and Pollution is around a lot more than they normally are. Death’s presence hangs over them even when they’re not home, not in a foreboding way but more like a shield, the way their cloak of shadows was used to cradle Adam as a baby ( ~~when he was actually a baby and not just _their_ baby, they’re all guilty of thinking~~) and the way Adam uses their cloak to win at hide-and-seek with the others. 

Adam is normally a wild child - it’s all War’s influence, Pollution claims and War protests that _everyone_ had a say in how the kid turned out - but the sickness takes everything out of him and leaves him miserable and tired. He cries when he throws up, cries when Pollution tries to get him to eat a little bit, cries when he can’t sleep, cries because his whole body hurts.

It’s the worst thing they’ve ever been through, and they _are_ all including _everything_ they’ve each gone through over the centuries they’ve been alive.

They’ve all taken to staying with Adam as much as possible, working in shifts of one person at a time so he’s never alone. Adam doesn’t like being alone, they learned when he stumbled down the stairs, half-delirious and crying because in his fever-addled mind he had thought he was the only one in the house. They’re never in danger of becoming sick themselves, with their own supernatural powers protecting them. 

War is with him most often, though. She claims it’s because her influence might get him back to his old fighting spirit faster than the others, but everyone knows why she’s really doing it. Death has tried to talk to her about it, but she avoids the subject by running away to the safety of her own room. 

She’s War - she’s seen soldiers die on and off the battlefield, and off the battlefield, their deaths are caused largely by sickness, brought forth by the often terrible living conditions, festering wounds, and several other things. She’s seen the strongest soldiers succumb to fevers that refused to break. She used to not care - she was War, she had better things to do than stick around the medical tents all day. Although she would watch the outcomes of her work with pleasure, she didn’t bat an eye at the misery. 

But now it’s Adam who’s sick, sick with the same fevers that took too many warriors to count. It’s different now that it’s her boy, her kid. And logically she’s sure that this is not the same thing, not an infection, this is just a regular fever that every kid gets (at least that’s what the doctor and the Them’s parents said when she asked), but it’s different to know that than it is to have to deal with the pain of seeing your kid crying because his whole body aches all the time. 

So War sits with him in his bed, letting him lie on top of her while they watch cartoons on the television they put in his room after Frannie dropped it off with them (saying it was the same television she had watched in her room when she was sick as a kid). She keeps her arms wrapped tight around him, holding onto him while he sniffles and shakes against her. He’s sweaty and crying a bit as usual, but she holds onto him anyway. She’s going to be by his side as much as she can until all of this is behind them. 

Adam gives a small sob. War sighs and secures her grip on him. She ruffles his hair a bit, then slowly starts to comb her fingers through his hair. He’s sweaty and will definitely need another bath later, but she keeps doing it, finding the constant motion soothing. Adam seems to think the same, because she feels his breathing even out until he falls asleep on top of her. 

She keeps doing it even after that, because Adam hasn’t been sleeping well even during naps, and if she can help her kid in some small way, that’s what she’s going to do. 


End file.
